Abram Khasin - Nonagenarian

     Abram Iosifovich Khasin was born on February 15, 1923 and is the world's oldest master on the FIDE active list...his last rated game was played in June of 2015. 

Further reading:
# Today's 90 Year Olds Are Mentally Sharper Than Their Predecessors  
# How To Keep Your Brain Young  
# Brutal Truths About The Aging Brain 

     Khasin was awarded the IM title in 1964 and the Correspondence GM title in 1972. Currently his FIDE rating is 2318. Chessmetrics estimates his highest rating was in 1969 at a hefty 2625 placing him at number 45 in the world.
     Khasin was born in Zaporozhye in the Ukraine, but his parents soon moved to Kiev, the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. He taught himself to play chess at the rather later age of 16 and joined the Pioneers’ Palace where Bronstein and other famous players trained. His progress was rapid and he was soon playing at the Candidate Master (2125-2250) level. 
     In 1941 he qualified for the finals in the Kiev City Championship, but the tournament was not finished because of the war and the Khasin family was evacuated. Khasin volunteered to go to the front where he served in a mortar division. 
     In December 1942, he was severely wounded in Stalingrad and was hospitalized suffering from wounds which resulted in both legs being amputated. If that wasn’t bad enough, he was suffering from frostbite, pneumonia, blood infection and other illnesses. 
     After the war, Khasin graduated from the institute of foreign languages and went to work in a school as a teacher of English. He continued to play chess and became one of the USSR’s strongest players. Khasin often participated in Moscow’s championships and performed well. He qualified for the final USSR championship five times. Gradually he abandoned play and focused on teaching.
     In 1968 he was recognized as a trainer in the USSR and taught chess in the Central Chess Club, the Pioneers’ Palace and the chess faculty of a sports school that was attended by talented children from all over the country. Among his pupils were Olga Rubtsova, Elena Fatalibekova, Yuri Razuvaev, Boris Gulko and Evgeny Bareev. Since 2002, Khasin has been living with his family in Essen, Germany. 
     Khasin was Bronstein’s victim in a celebrated game from the 1957 USSR Championship in a game that has been praised for Bronstein’s unusual 25th move.  

White to play

    Kirby, writing in Chess World in 1957, called Bronstein's 25 Qa3 "the most remarkable, the most unbelievable winning move in chess. Believe it or not, Russian analysis has shown that it is the only clearly winning move.” 
     Bronstein’s explanation was that Khasin had a weak nervous system, so he decided to sac the Pawn because he knew that this was his best winning chance against an emotionally unstable opponent. 
     It’ not clear to me why 25.Qa3 was singled out as the winning move except that it was “unusual.” According to Stockfish it was indeed a do-nothing move in a position that was quite equal after Khasin grabbed the c-Pawn with 25...Bxc4.
     But...here’s the big reveal...Stockfish evaluates the position after Bronstein’s 26.f4 as being at least -1.50, so it’s strongly in black’s favor. White should have played 26.Bf3 or even 26.Ne5?! 
     Khasin went badly astray on move 28. After the moves 25.Qa3 Bxc4 26.f4 g4 27.e4 Bd4+ 28.Bf2 Bxf2+?? white is better, but it took further mistakes by Khasin to lose. Correct was 28...b5!! and it’s black who has a winning attack. 
     Of course in those days they didn’t have engines and in many cases the game was annotated based more on the result than anything else. 
     The following game was played in the third World Senior Championship. The first three were all held in Bad Wildbad, Germany. Originally, the age limit was 60 years for the men, and 50 for the women. 
     Since 2014, the Senior Championship is split in two different age categories with consequently two male and two female titles: 50+ and 65+. The championship is an eleven-round Swiss and is open tournament. A separate women's tournament is held if there are enough participants (at least 10 women from four different FIDE zones). The men's winner is awarded the title of GM; the women's winner receives the Woman GM title. 
    So far only two World Champions have won the Senior title: Vasily Smyslov for the men and Nona Gaprindashvili for the women. The loser of this game, Evgeny Vasiukov, won the title in 1995. 

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[Event "Senior World Championship"]
[Site "Bad Wildbad GER"]
[Date "1993.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Abram Khasin"]
[Black "Evgeni Vasiukov"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Snake Benoni} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 e6 4. Nc3 exd5 5. cxd5 Bd6 {This is
sometimes called the Snake Benoni...the B is developed to d6 rather than g7.
This opening was invented in 1982 by Rolf Olav Martens and analyzed by Latvian
GM Miezis. A number of top GMs have given it a whirl, but as one astute person
observed, there is a big difference between having played it once or twice and
continuing to play it!} 6. Nf3 O-O 7. g3 Bc7 8. Bg2 d6 9. O-O a6 10. a4 Nbd7
11. e4 Rb8 12. Qd3 Re8 13. Re1 Ng4 14. Bg5 f6 15. Bf4 g5 {This looks risky,
but surprisingly white is unable to take advantage of the apparent weakening
of black's K.} 16. Bd2 Bb6 {Attacking f2 by threatening 17...c4. This plan
turns out to be ineffective. Having compromised his K-side, his best bet
seems to be 21...Nde5 22.Nxe5 Nxe4} 17. Nd1 {Defending f2.} 17... Nde5 18.
Qf1 Bd7 19. Bc3 Ba7 {Black can't make any progress on the K-side. Moves like
19...f5 ot 19...h5 only further weaken his Ks position as white's K is just
too well defended. So, black switches his attention to the Q-side and aims
for the advance of the b-Pawn.} 20. h3 Nh6 21. Qe2 Nef7 {He is going to try
and take advantage of white's last move and improve the position of his N on
h3.} 22. Nd2 Nf5 23. Qh5 b5 {It might have been wiser to drive the Q back
first with 23. ..Ng7.} 24. axb5 Bxb5 25. Ne3 Nxe3 26. Rxe3 {Black's slip at
move 23 has left white with a dangerous initiative on the K-side.} 26... c4
27. Rf3 Ne5 {On his next move Khasin misses an interesting tactical shot:
28.h4! g4! (but not 28... Nxf3+ 29.Nxf3 with a winning attack.) 29.Rf4 with a
strong attack.} 28. Rf5 Bd7 29. Rxa6 {Black must avoid taking the R because
after 29...Bxf5 30.exf5 Bb6 31. Ne4 white has what amounts to a winning
attack.} 29... Bc5 {Khasin's next move seems to make sense as it eliminates
black's well placed N. However, had Vasiukov met it correctly by playing
30...Rxe5 31.Rxe5 fxe5 the exchange of pieces can only benefit black.} 30.
Bxe5 Bxf5 {White's next move is the only one he has. 31.exf5?? would be a
horrible mistake because after 31...Rxe5 32.Nc4 Re1+ black gets a winning
attack on the Q-side.} 31. Bc3 Bg6 32. Qh6 {The Q ends up being rather out of
the way here, so better was 32.Qe3} 32... Qe7 33. h4 {White has to attack.
There's no time to mess around and take the c-Pawn because black seizes the
a-file with ...Ra8 which leaves him with a winning assault on the Q-side.}
33... gxh4 34. Qxh4 {How does black meet the threat to his f-Pawn?} 34... Kg7
{ Not this way! Either 34...f5 or 34...Bb4 had to be tried though white would
stil e better. The problem with ...Kg7 is that it leaves black subject to a
fork on his K and Q. In order to avoid the fork, he has to lose a move
retreating the K and for the defender the loss of a move can be fatal.} 35.
Nxc4 Ra8 36. e5 {Very nice. White threatens a Pawn fork so the K has to go
back. The P can't be taken because if 36...fxe5 37.Qxe7 and black's R on a8
is hanging. And if 36...dxe6 37.d6 gives white a passed P and a winning
advantage.} 36... Kg8 37. Rxa8 Rxa8 38. e6 {White could have gotten two passed
Ps with 38.Nxd6. In any case, black is now lost.} 38... Ra1+ 39. Kh2 Bxf2
40. Bxf6 Qc7 41. b3 {After 41.Bc3 it's not likely Vasiukov would have fallen
for 41... Qxc4?? 42.Qd8+ with mate to follow.} 41... (41 42. Bc3 Qxc4 43.
Qd8+) Rb1 { It's quite likely that both players were in serious time trouble
here. With his next move white blunders into a perpetual check: 42...Bg1+
43.Kh1 (But NOT 43.Kh3?? Bf5+ and black is winning) Bd4+ etc.} 44. e7 {On
42.Qf4 white wins.} 44... Rxb3 {Missing his chance to obtain the draw.} 45.
Bh3 {Brilliant... white now has a mate in 17 moves after 43...Bxg3+ 44.Qxg3
Qxe7 45.Bxe7 Rxg3 46. Be6+ and 47.Kxg3.} 45... Kf7 {He could have held out for
a mate in 17 after 43... Qxe7!} 46. Be6+ Ke8 47. Nxd6+ {A nice finish. If
45...Qxd6 46.Qa4+ mates in two.} 1-0